Abstract
Health care problems in family practice are often both undifferentiated and beyond the boundaries of physical disease. Problem definition requires an initial broad categorization; for example, failure to appreciate that the patient’s reason for seeking help is anxiety about the nature of pain rather than its intensity may lead the physician down the wrong diagnostic path. Most of the common reasons for which patients consult physicians can be found among the following categories:1,2
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Pain or malaise
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Anxiety about the meaning of pain or other symptoms
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Problems with living
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The need to legitimate sick-role behavior
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The prevention of disease
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© 1983 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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McCormick, J.S. (1983). Problem Differentiation. In: Taylor, R.B., Rosen, M.G., Jacott, W.E., Donatelle, E.P., Buckingham, J.L. (eds) Fundamentals of Family Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5433-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5433-1_5
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